Accolades keep coming in for South Carolina basketball signee Ashlyn Watkins
Cardinal Newman athletic director Will Eudy recalls first hearing about Ashlyn Watkins five years ago before she enrolled at the school.
“I could remember being told there is a girl that could come to school that could dunk,” Eudy said Wednesday. “And that was pretty exciting. There is so much more to Ashlyn ... and she has grown into such a great young lady.”
The 6-foot-3 Watkins also has grown into one of the best girls basketball players the state has ever produced, and she added to her long list of accomplishments Wednesday.
The Cardinal Newman senior was given a commemorative jersey for being selected to the McDonald’s All-American game, which features some of the top players in the country. Earlier in the day, the South Carolina basketball signee was named the 2021-22 Gatorade Girls Basketball Player of the Year for South Carolina.
Watkins and fellow South Carolina signee Talaysia Cooper are the first girls players from South Carolina chosen for the McDonald’s All-American game since A’ja Wilson in 2014. She is the 16th player from the Midlands to win the Gatorade award and first since Swansea’s Danae McNeal in 2019-20 season.
The honors come a couple weeks after Watkins helped the Cardinals to their fourth straight SCISA Class 3A state championship.
“It was everything I planned for,” Watkins said of her season. “It means a lot because famous people and great basketball players have been McDonald’s All-Americans. It is an honor to be one as well, and I just want to show everybody I’m one of the best.
“... And the Gatorade, I just found out before I walked in here. I was nominated for it last year or two years ago, so it means a lot to win it.”
Watkins leaves Cardinal Newman as the most celebrated and decorated female athlete. The school plans to hang a banner with her No. 22 jersey number on it next year that highlights her accomplishments.
Watkins is the school’s all-time leader in scoring (1,740 points) and rebounds (1,341) to go along with 366 blocked shots. Cardinal Newman made it to the state championship game in each of her five years at the school, winning the last four titles.
“I didn’t expect any of this,” Watkins said. “My mom told me I came here for academics, not basketball, but basketball came along with it.”
“She has been blessed to be one of the best players in Cardinal Newman history and one of the best in South Carolina,” said James “Pooh” Abrams, a former Eau Claire standout who still trains players in the Columbia area.
Abrams said Watkins attended one of his Hoopology camps when she was 7 or 8 years, but he has known her since she was born. He continues to work with her, along with Watkins’ strength coach, Joshua Holmes. The two have been working to get her ready for the McDonald’s game and its slam dunk contest.
The dunk event is part of the Powerade Jam Fest on March 28 and will be aired on ESPN2. The respective boys and girls games are the next night on ESPN and ESPN2.
It won’t be the first time a girl has been in the McDonald’s dunk contest. Former Tennessee great Candace Parker won it in 2004, and Fran Belibi — now at Stanford — competed and won in 2019.
“It’s going to be a surprise. We don’t want to give out too much,” Abrams said of what to expect from Watkins in the dunk contest. “We have been working two to four good dunks she could really clear without any assistance. She can do a lot of in-game dunks, but it is a little different when you are getting a little trickery involved.
“Because of the long season and AAU, we have been slowly working her back into getting full range of motion. We want her to have fresh legs, not only for the dunk contest, but to be ready for the game also. Normally, the all-star games are dominated by guards, but we want her to be able to keep up with the guards and play at the high level she is capable of doing.”
This story was originally published March 9, 2022 at 2:46 PM.
